Today I want to send a protest to the friends of Teletica Channel 7, and so that there is no doubt about the intention of my story, I do it in my blog and even a positive proposal. After all, it is my own media and here I do not run the risk of being edited.
An unimportant omission.
Last Saturday night, despite having announced it at 11:00 PM, Teletica Channel 7 aired its summary of the Volcano Festival awards ceremony after 12:15 AM. And since I was unable to attend the National Theater last February 27, I endured the sleep and stayed faithfully tuned to Channel 7 while I finished the movie The Patriot with Mel Gibson.
As the Volcano broadcast began, in the competition of the best of the participating country’s advertising, and during the words of the new president of ASCAP, the Costa Rican association of advertising agencies, it was easy to recognize the crude editing they had done. That is, they cut and pasted without shame, as the image jumped and the audio also to show an obvious cut, although possibly only I realized what had been removed. That did lead me to pay full attention to the editing of the program.
In an unusual gesture in our country, but worthy and faithful reflection of the human quality that we all know in Dirk Stammes, President of ASCAP, made a recognition to my work of four years as President of the association and that in turn, was generously recognized with a brief applause from the audience. However, Teletica eliminated it. I want to say, however, that this is not the origin of my protest, as this was only a personal anecdote in the midst of what I have come to consider unheard of. So please follow me a little further and we come to the central point of my message.
Fair and heartfelt acknowledgements.
By way of commentary and in the just recognition it deserves, this intentional cut of the channel has no comparison with the absolutely involuntary omission of ASCAP, since it did not remember don Manolo Gavilán Sánchez, in the same National Theater. This great publicist should have received his deserved recognition, at least with a minute of silence and a tribute to his contribution for a lifetime of contributions to the country’s advertising. For this reason, for those who saw the transmission of the 7th, I want to warn that in this case there was not an editing of the channel, but an oversight that will have to be amended very soon, because Don Manolo and his extraordinary career of a lifetime deserves a standing ovation and applause always.
Having said this with all sensitivity for the memory of Don Manolo, I was very pleased to see that Teletica kept in the transmission the tribute and recognition made to Don Enrique Nieto, President and founder of Asesores YR. It was an opportunity to listen to his words, to remember his trajectory and especially to see the presentation of the Volcán a la Vida, an award reserved for commercial communicators, advertisers and creatives who are active in their contribution to our activity. It was a very emotional and heartfelt moment for all the advertisers and creatives at the National Theater and in Costa Rica.
As the minutes went by, however, I noticed that Teletica had slashed the program and that they had quickly moved on to the Great Volcanoes, the Producer of the Year and the Agency of the Year. Within minutes the broadcast was over. As it is, the country’s advertising, the main source of the media’s income, received a surplus of its programming, precisely at a time when almost no one is tuned in anymore.
The example of almost thirty years of Pregoneros sponsored 100% by La Nación has been of little use to Teletica. It has been of little use how much we have talked to reach the consensus that the country needs to give advertising creativity the deserved respect and attention that is given to it in the whole world, less in cases such as Teletica and its Volcano transmissions.
Parenthesis on news and editorial direction
To leave the subject bouncing on the screens, and in a brief parenthesis, both Pilar Cisneros and Ignacio Santos seem to still not recognize the importance and interest that exists in advertising creativity.
In the last debates between presidential candidates, it caught my attention to hear Ignacio Santos say that the debate format had been a success. And he emphasized with his questions, how much more valuable the debate had been than the advertising, since ideas had been discussed more effectively than in the ads. (I did not understand the comparison.) I also remember an interview made for 7 días to one of the most successful creatives in Argentina, Pablo del Campo, in one of his visits to Costa Rica, only to find out weeks later, upon my inquiry, that Doña Pilar had decided not to do the segment on advertising creativity for reasons I never knew. (I guess that because it was advertising it did not deserve more attention). Telenoticias, however, constantly does advertising in news format, certainly not creative at all. Here is one example of many that we all know, since it is usual to see advertising journalism within Telenoticias for the channel’s programs.
I emphasize that the winning advertising creativity in Costa Rica is generated by young national talent, which is growing every day and achieving unprecedented success. The Lions in Cannes, the Silver medal in the Young Lions Competition, the awards in Antigua, Buenos Aires, Panama or London, to name a few, deserve recognition, are important and newsworthy, although for some it does not have it for the simple fact of being advertising.
A summary of the unprecedented.
But let’s go back to last Saturday and Teletica’s broadcast of the Volcano Awards night.
Can you imagine that Teletica edited the transmission of the Volcano to include only the categories that are of interest to the channel? Can you believe that they not only eliminated, but also did not even record the awarding of the Graphic, Interactive and Radio because they are not of interest to Teletica Channel 7? And in a Volcán like the last one where the jury did not give many Volcanes, it was evident and I finally found out that they have done it this way for three consecutive years.
It is sincerely unheard of that Channel 7 believes that it contributes to the creativity of the country by mutilating in a summary the awarding of the Volcanoes, to only show the Great Volcanoes or those awarded in Television or Audiovisual Production Techniques. They are doing a disservice to the Festival, to the advertisers and to the creatives of the country, if they consider that they are going to stimulate the national talent by making a cut of the Festival ignoring most of the categories, simply because they are not of commercial interest. It is unheard of, it is unacceptable and a poor reflection of the spirit I have always known them for. Someone has made an absurd decision here that must be corrected in the future.
I have known Teletica Canal 7, the Picado family and many of the people who work there for a lifetime, and although they have not done everything they could to stimulate advertising creativity in the country, precisely in the activity that is their most important source of income, mutilating a creative festival to respond to their commercial interests is not a reflection of the great Costa Rican company that is Televisora de Costa Rica, S.A.. And for this reason, I am sure that such a barbarity will be corrected starting next year, since it is about stimulating the creative talent of the country, the agencies and their work, the main business generator of the mass media.
Invitation to Teletica Channel 7
Just a few days after the eighth Volcano Festival, I leave an invitation to Teletica Channel 7 to turn next year’s broadcast into an attractive, exciting and valuable program of at least 60 minutes. To schedule it at a time that gives it the importance and recognition that the country’s advertising creativity deserves, and that includes all the participating categories. It would be an extraordinary contribution and a faithful reflection of the great spirit that I have always known in this pioneer and great television company in Costa Rica.